Who remembers having an outside toilets as a kid?

Darren Holmes…. 58 Blackman Avenue!!!

Virginia Davis… That looks like my great grandparents house. Spiders as well !!!!!

Sandie Carlyon… My dads house. Just like Steptoes loo.

Nick Prince…..

Jan Warren… Aaaaaaarrrrrgggghhhh, the “torture” paper?! – well, it was either that or newspaper, hahaha, happy days!!

Mark Asseenontv Scutchings-Stevens… With most of it on your fingernails…….

Chris Meachen… We lived in a house with an outside loo, much like the above until I was 6.. I was always fascinated by the various coloured snails that inhabited the place. Was bloody cold in the winter, & you used a pot indoors unless you absolutely had to go outside…

Paul Morfey… My grannys house in Brede, makes me think how things have changed and how few realise!!

Paul Huggett… Yup, Romney Marsh in the 50s. We had no electricity, mains water only arrived in about ’56, and no dustbin collections; a dry pond near the house (much of which was built from asbestos, by the way!) had all the tin cans, bottles, batteries for the radio etc chucked in.

Joe Knight… Stopped all your fears of spiders 😂😂 Also the expression (DON’T FORGET TO PULL THE CHAIN )😂😂

Pete Prescott… The cold seat in winter. It was like sitting on ice. All I remember is shivering. I was very young and petrified of going to the outside loo. My father caught me having a wee out of the back door when I was five. He was very understanding. Such a lovely man. He knocked the wall down and made an entrance from the kitchen and then bricked up the outer doorway. It was then an INSIDE loo ! There’s “posh”

Alan Esdaile… My dad also did the same Pete and knocked through and blocked up outside. A lot less spiders, snails and woodlice.

Pete Prescott… I used to use the toilet paper to trace the maps I was obsessed with. My school books were full of maps and (izel?) Paper. Terrible toilet paper.

Keith Cowper… Oh yeah! Done all of them !!!!

Heather Smith… my gran used to have one

Glenn Piper… We had an outdoor loo until I was 4. Then we moved and not only did the new house have an indoor loo, but luxury of luxury it also had a bathroom. Until then we’d had to use a tin bath in front of the fire.

Joe Knight… Or the sink as a kid

Glenn Piper… oh yeah, I’d forgotten that one, but yes, now you mention it my decrepit memory has dredged up a memory 😂

Will Cornell… What do you mean “remember–outside–“? You mean in other parts of the world they have them INside? Why here in Texas USA I thought outside is the way it’s s’pose to be.

Wendy Weaver… We always had an inside loo but we visited people who had Elsans up the garden. We visited relatives in Somerset and they had a “double holer”. What luxury but they were still Elsans in an outhouse

Dave Nattress… I just remember the outside toilet in our terraced house in Bexhill it was attached to the house but you had to go outside and up the yard to get to it. As my Dad was a builder he soon knocked an opening through so we could access it from inside and blocked up the old door to it on the outside. He also put in a bathroom upstairs – total revolution this was, and I recall one of my Mum’s friends paying her 2 shillings or something like to come in on a Sunday night for a bath. Before that I truly remember the tin bath hanging on the wall outside. Moving on, then we had a back-boiler put in behind the coal fire in one room which gave limited heating and hot water for the cylinder upstairs. I also recall when we moved there a kitchen range I think it was called in the back room and coal fires or open hearths in 3 rooms downstairs and upstairs. Hence is why the average old terrace house has such large chimney stacks with typically 3/4 chimneys or flues each side of the party wall. Often then a separate stack serving the back of the house.

Alan Pepper… Yes me too at 91 Blackman Avenue. In between the shed and the coal ! Bloody freezing this time of the year. In the house the ice was INSIDE on the bedroom window.

Dave Nattress… Yes, Alan (Pepper), I remember ice on the inside of the windows too! Sort of moves on logically (to me) to the severe Winter of 1962/1963. I recall it well – I was 10 in March 1963. I have looked at the statistics on the web and it’s almost astonishing to find out how bad that Winter was. Whilst I think it all kicked off very late in 62, it was the New Year on that really suffered it.

Mick O’Dowd… Of course the off-shoot of these outsiders was often the “potty under the bed” for nightime relief!

Jane Saunders Jyoti… yes still had one back in 1979 – twas freezing in the winter

Chris Meachen… I have distinct memories of some of the snails which inhabited our outside loo. Bitterly cold in the winter, ours was in the far corner of the back yard. It was a real luxury when we moved into our new council flat when I was 5,- we had hot water too!

Jeanette Jones… Can’t get too nostalgic about those outside loos!

David Edwards… The newsprint played havoc with yer bum cheeks.If you were flush (no apologies) you used Bronco paper which was like trying to wipe yer chad with grease proof paper. Tho wrapped round a haircomb it enabled you to accompany yourself with a kazoo type sound when blown.

Joe Knight… Didn’t worry about spiders they were everywhere

Conan Howard… when I was a kid in the 50s there were 9 people in our house using an outside WC like that one in the photo. The water in the cistern and pan was always frozen solid in the winter. We used to tear up news papers into small squares for bog paper, and thread onto a piece of string .. happy days? I think not.

Barry Newton… Still have outside loos here in France. I have one in the garden although I tend to use the indoor ones I’ve fitted

Tony Court-holmes…thats the sun

Peter Houghton… Yes my ex wife had an out side loo untill we had an extention done and then had an inside loo

Alan Esdaile… Thinking back now, I remember we used newspaper before we went posh and used Izal. Limited water in the system when you pulled the chain but can’t remember if the toilet got blocked with the use of newspaper?

Mike Guy… Yep, folding now!

Martin Stringer… My memory as a small child is having to walk across my grandfather’s farm yard in Ireland to get to the loo especially in the early hours.

James… Yep. As others have mentioned, lots of spiders to keep you company. My dad installed a bath tub and toilet inside the house when I was 7, but then we moved not long afterward to a new house that had a proper bathroom. Then when I was almost 13 we moved to Canada. Thinking back to those early days in Manchester are quite surreal.

Eric Harmer… The Old days

Dennis Torrance…Something in my early life I want not to remember especially winter time

Pete Prescott… Yep ! All that. Outside Loo’s and puts under the bed. My aunt Ethel had an outside loo. The milkman used to leave the milk there in summer days when it was hot. One day she forgot to lock the door. You can picture the scene…

Faith Brooker… An abiding memory is my brother tormenting me by setting lighting Jumping Jack fireworks, which he threw under the outside loo, while I cowered inside with my knees drawn up, trying to escape them.

Dennis Torrance… Horrific times for the most of us, the useless toilet paper, spiders and the chain which would not flush . I was brought up in a Victorian house no hot water and worst of all no bath strip washing . When I moved in 67 a bathroom shower what joy

Alan King… the Daily Mirror torn into quarters and hanging from a meat hook off the cistern – better than Izal any day – and you could read the headlines off your arse in the mirror

Wendy Weaver… When I was about 7 we went to visit relatives in a Somerset village. They had a “double-holer” down the garden. It was surreal to sit next to my mum having a wee

Maureen Hunt… Yes, I am 73 and we had an outside loo and the newspaper on a hook, it was like the one in the picture, always full of spiders and the long chain to pull, it was a way of life, everyone was the same along our street. I can always remember when Mum came home proudly showing us the new Izal square paper (as we were now posh) but she said, to us to remember she isnt made of money and it was one square for a wee, and 2 squares for a ….. We were in big trouble if used the shiny side though with no control over where it ended up. Still looking back it was an improvement on us kids having black bums from the news print. Had that outside loo until I moved and married at 20. Impoverished childhood but we knew the value of things and appreciated things more than kids of today with their £200 toys.

Heather Sidery… Privvies

7 thoughts on “Who remembers having an outside toilets as a kid?”

  1. Yes me too at 91 Blackman Avenue. In between the shed and the coal ! Bloody freezing this time of the year. In the house the ice was INSIDE on the bedroom window.

    Reply
  2. I just remember the outside toilet in our terraced house in Bexhill it was attached to the house but you had to go outside and up the yard to get to it. As my Dad was a builder he soon knocked an opening through so we could access it from inside and blocked up the old door to it on the outside. He also put in a bathroom upstairs – total revolution this was, and I recall one of my Mum’s friends paying her 2 shillings or something like to come in on a Sunday night for a bath. Before that I truly remember the tin bath hanging on the wall outside.

    Moving on, then we had a back-boiler put in behind the coal fire in one room which gave limited heating and hot water for the cylinder upstairs. I also recall when we moved there a kitchen range I think it was called in the back room and coal fires or open hearths in 3 rooms downstairs and upstairs. Hence is why the average old terrace house has such large chimney stacks with typically 3/4 chimneys or flues each side of the party wall. Often then a separate stack serving the back of the house.

    Reply
  3. Yes, Alan (Pepper), I remember ice on the inside of the windows too! Sort of moves on logically (to me) to the severe Winter of 1962/1963. I recall it well – I was 10 in March 1963. I have looked at the statistics on the web and it’s almost astonishing to find out how bad that Winter was. Whilst I think it all kicked off very late in 62, it was the New Year on that really suffered it.

    Reply
  4. when I was a kid in the 50s there were 9 people in our house using an outside WC like that one in the photo.. the water in the cistern and pan was always frozen solid in the winter.. we used to tear up news papers into small squares for bog paper, and thread onto a piece of string .. happy days? I think not

    Reply
  5. Yep. As others have mentioned, lots of spiders to keep you company. My dad installed a bath tub and toilet inside the house when I was 7, but then we moved not long afterward to a new house that had a proper bathroom. Then when I was almost 13 we moved to Canada. Thinking back to those early days in Manchester are quite surreal.

    Reply
  6. Yes, I am 73 and we had an outside loo and the newspaper on a hook, it was like the one in the picture, always full of spiders and the long chain to pull, it was a way of life, everyone was the same along our street. I can always remember when Mum came home proudly showing us the new Izal square paper (as we were now posh) but she said, to us to remember she isnt made of money and it was one square for a wee, and 2 squares for a ….. We were in big trouble if used the shiny side though with no control over where it ended up. Still looking back it was an improvement on us kids having black bums from the news print. Had that outside loo until I moved and married at 20. Impoverished childhood but we knew the value of things and appreciated things more than kids of today with their £200 toys.

    Reply

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